Give ‘em a jig!
I can’t tell you what a relief it is to come from a show I was critical of and pick up on a new show which features a copper-bottomed classic banger. Forget all talk about meditative sound or records which evoke spring cleaning, this mix of Sul-E-Stomp thrilled me from the top of my head to the soles of my feet, feet which want to burst into joyous, euphoric dancing every time I hear this track.
The basis for Sul-E-Stomp comes from Scully’s Reel, originally recorded by the World Music collective, Suns of Arqa for their 1980 debut album, Revenge of the Mozabites. Sped up and given a James Brown backbeat by Astralasia, a Magic Mushroom Band side project which has now now gone on to outlast its mothership, the listener is taken on a breakneck journey which whisks us from rural Ireland to Detroit and Goa/Ibiza especially during the monumental battle that takes place between synthesizers and power-chording guitars that starts from 3:05 and builds in intensity up to 4:52. It sounds like two giants living on neighbouring stars having a fight and it made the hairs on my neck stand up.
Through late 1992, Peel had been playing a lot of Celtic music from a CD called Music at Matt Malloy’s, so to hear that genre amped up and turbocharged in the way that Astralasia do here would have been very appealing to him. For me, it was nothing less than a re-affirmation of why I do this blog and the wonderful treats that John Peel could pass on to those who stuck with him. It’s the very epitome of his “Don’t like that record? Well, hang on a minute, what do you think of this one?” credo.
Video courtesy of h3lme
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